Wednesday, November 9, 2005

Well, I was close
It isn't easy picking winners - whether it is an election, race horses, lottery numbers, or whatever. But, I took a stab at the Boston city elections and didn't do too badly:

FLAHERTY - 49,163 - 17.58% check
ARROYO - 43,492 - 15.56% check
YOON - 41,839 - 14.96% oops, had Connolly
MURPHY - 35,507 - 12.70% check
CONNOLLY - 31,596 - 11.30% oops, had Yoon here
O'MALLEY - 28,292 - 10.12% check
WHITE - 26,965 - 9.64% had Flynn here
FLYNN - 21,739 - 7.78% had White here
Write-in Votes - 1,008 - 0.36%

On the Mayoral race, I was way off: I picked Menino, 58-42. He won 68 to 32. But still, not a bad guess. It is clear from the results that the progressives didn't come out as heavily as they needed to. Sure, they boosted Yoon into the final four. But they left Matt O'Malley - a young, white, male progressive - way behind [those familiar with my political past shouldn't be surprised at this result]. The PDFs of ward breakdowns aren't up, but I am interested in seeing whether or not O'Malley got help from black communities in town.
And in the end, incumbent Stephen Murphy - who was all but given up for dead by the media and politicos - returned easily.
Most disappointing for Patricia White was her returns. She slips to seventh even after spending a fortune on the race, with slick TV ads, trying to pitch herself as a populist woman even if she was born of privilege. Rumor has it that she will never run for public office again. Three strikes and you're out, as they say. But, never say never. Maybe people just don't know her well enough yet or were underimpressed with her ideas. Who knows.

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